Andy Murray: Career highs and lows

Despite a straight-sets defeat to Roger Federer in the final of the US Open,
Andy Murray’s breathless victory over Rafael Nadal in the previous round
will ensure the 21-year-old reaches a career high ranking of fourth in the
world in the next ATP rankings.

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All guns blazing: Andy Murray shows off his new found strength at the US OpenPhoto: AP

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The kid is alright: Andy Murray topped the world junior rankingsPhoto: Ian Stewart

Pain stopped play: An injury at the Hamburg Masters in 2007 put Andy Murray out of the French Open and WImbledon that yearPhoto: Reuters

By Steve Wilson

7:14AM BST 09 Sep 2008

After winning the junior Orange Bowl in Miami in 1999, a prestigious junior event for under-12s, Murray moved to Barcelona aged 15 to attend the Schiller International School and trained on the clay courts of the Sanchez-Casal Academy.

In 2002 he made his junior Wimbledon debut and by 2004, identified as a future talent, he travelled with the British Davis Cup squad in a non-playing capacity to Luxembourg.

In August of the same year he won the futures event in Xativa, Spain and was named in Britain's Davis Cup squad for World Group play-off in Austria in September.

The wider sporting public first became aware of Murray when he became the first British winner of the US Open boys' title, beating Ukrainian Sergei Stakhovsky 6-4 6-2 in the final.

In March he became the youngest British Davis Cup player, in a match against Israel.

In June he defeated 14th seed Radek Stepanek in straight sets to become the first Scottish player to reach the third round at Wimbledon, where he lost to former finalist David Nalbandian in an epic five-set match.

July saw him win his first Challenger tour title in Aptos, California and in October he contested his first ATP final at the Thailand Open, losing to then world number one Roger Federer.

A disappointing start to 2006 saw Murray lose to Juan Ignacio Chela in the Australian Open first round, however, the following month he won his first ATP Tour title when beating Lleyton Hewitt 2-6 6-1 7-6 (7/3) in the SAP Open final in San Jose, having knocked out Andy Roddick in the semi-finals.

Later that month Murray’s rising status as the most gifted British player on the circuit was confirmed when he moved above Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski in the ATP world rankings to become British No 1.

All was not as well as it might have appeared within team Murray, however, and, soon after, he announced his split from coach Mark Petchey due to a "difference of opinion".

Despite inflated expectations from the British tennis public, desperate to see a home success, 18th seed Marcos Baghdatis ended Murray’s Wimbledon dream in the last 16.

In July, British tennis broke the bank to hire Andre Agassi’s former coach Brad Gilbert to take Murray forward.

The new coaching team appeared to have had an invigorating effect when then world No 1 Roger Federer was dispatched 7-5 6-4 in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters. However, Murray was forced to take a reality check when he was beaten in the fourth round of the US Open by Nikolay Davydenko.

By 2007 Murray was an established member of the upper reaches of men’s tennis and in January reached the final of the Qatar Open, losing to Ivan Ljubicic. In February he successfully defended his SAP Open crown with a three-set victory over unseeded Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

With genuine hope that he could compete at the remaining three slams of the year, a wrist injury picked up at the Hamburg Masters forced him out of the French Open and, despite desperately trying to get fit, Wimbledon.

After returning to full fitness, Murray was an integral part of Britain's Davis Cup team which beat Croatia to return to the World Group for the first time in four years.

After victory at the St Petersburg Open, rumours of discord with Gilbert were confirmed by the announcement that the pair were to split.

2008 proved to be Murray’s most successful yet, going one better in Qatar at the start of the year after beating Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 4-6 6-2 in the Doha final.

However, Murray was brought crashing back down to earth almost immediately when, despite being clear favourite, he was beaten by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round of the Australian Open. Some consolation could be drawn from the fact that Tsonga went on to reach the final.

More concerns were raised over the reliability of Murray’s fitness in an age of big hitters when he withdrew from Britain's Davis Cup tie in Argentina with a knee injury.

Further doubts were raised – most notably by brother Jamie - as to his commitment to the team with the suggestion that had it been a grand slam rather than a Davis Cup match, he might have played.

An Open 13 tournament victory in February, where he beat beat Croatia's Mario Ancic 6-3 6-4 confirmed a return to fitness and a month later his true character was revealed when coming from a set down to beat Federer, again, in first round of the Dubai Open.

After a third round French Open defeat to Nicolas Almagro a physically bulked up Murray was second best when losing 6-3 6-2 6-4 to Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, after coming through an epic five-setter against Richard Gasquet in the fourth round.

After one of the greatest Wimbledon finals ever between Nadal and Federer, may cast doubts over the possibility of the Scot ever reaching such heights, though in August, victory over world No 3 Novak Djokovic, 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/5), in his first Master event final confirmed his career continued to be on an upward curve.

That stuttered when, after claiming he would only be happy with a gold medal, he suffered a first-round defeat to Lu Yen-Hsun of Chinese Taipei in the singles competition at the Olympics in Beijing; an event that Nadal added to his list of achievements.

However, despite being second favourite, Murray took the fight to Nadal in a rain interrupted semi-final at the US Open and recorded a sensational 6-2 7-6 (7/5) 4-6 6-4 victory at Flushing Meadows to reach his first grand slam final.

Federer, who had had an extra day's rest than Murray, eventually won in straight sets to retain his US title.